otto

The Uber vs. Waymo trial took a turn for the the weird today when testimony revealed that Otto, the company whose acquisition is at the center of this lawsuit, was entertaining bids from other suitors.
For a bit of background, Otto is the self-driving truck company that Anthony Levandowski co-founded with Lior Ron. Both men previously worked at Google/Alphabet/Waymo — Levandowski on… Read More

Former Uber engineer Anthony Levandowski, who has been accused of stealing trade secrets from former employer Waymo, might have thought things couldn’t get much worse. But a new lawsuit filed by Levandowski’s former nanny suggests that the exact opposite is true.
In fact, much of the nanny’s lawsuit — filed by a personal injury attorney in Fair Oaks, Calif., and rife… Read More

Otto showed the world its digital lock in August. Four months later, the company has suspended operations. Hardware is hard. It’s a cliche for a reason.
The company made the decision just ahead of the holidays, a fact that founder and CEO Sam Jadallah recently made public with a lengthy Medium post now pinned to the top of the startup’s site. The extended survey of the Bay… Read More

During a tense exchange, Judge William Alsup allowed an Uber lawyer to disclose that Alphabet’s Waymo is seeking $2.6 billion for the highest value of a series of stolen trade secrets. There are currently nine trade secrets in question that were allegedly compromised by Anthony Levandowski.
Waymo’s lawyers, who took time to consider whether to attempt to keep the number… Read More

What’s the biggest thing holding back smart locks? Pricing? Consumer awareness? Security concerns? Bay Area-based startup Otto believes the issue is due, in part, to aesthetics. Today the company showed off its smart lock, created with a minimalist design in mind and a form factor the same size as the traditional lock it’s designed to replace. Read More

Uber’s Advanced Technologies Group has a new version of its testing transport truck for autonomous tech. The new model features an updated technology stack, including a 64-channel spinning LiDAR array, which is something never used previously on any of the former Otto’s test trucks. Read More

Rapid changes in the shipping industry has caught the attention of investors who are starting to pour large sums of money into the industry. And likely for good reason: as a future where trucks are run autonomously becomes ever clearer, the sensors and software behind that is going to have to be able to keep up.
One company, Samsara, is working on just those kinds of sensors and products to… Read More

Alphabet-owned Waymo, the autonomous driving technology that began life as Google’s self-driving car project, is evaluating a move into self-driving trucking. The company told BuzzFeed that it’s currently conducting a “technical exploration” of how its “technology can integrate into a truck,” a test which involves use of a single truck, being driven only… Read More

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Uber has issued a sternly worded letter to Anthony Levandowski, the engineer at the center of a lawsuit alleging theft of trade secrets from Google parent Alphabet’s self-driving technology unit Waymo. The gist? Comply with the court’s orders or risk being terminated. Read More

Autonomous driving company Waymo alleged today in court that the formation of rival Otto was a ruse concocted between its founder Anthony Levandowski and eventual acquirer Uber to hide the fact that he immediately went to work for the ride-hailing company after leaving Waymo’s parent company, Google. Read More

Anthony Levandowski, the engineer at the center of the legal battle between Google and Uber over driverless-car technology, has suffered a setback. Levandowski has broadly invoked his Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination. However, an appeals court has denied his request to extend his Fifth Amendment rights so broadly that Uber could redact documents on Levandowski’s behalf. Read More

In preparation for a preliminary injunction hearing next month, Waymo today filed new claims in its lawsuit against Uber, alleging that its competitor withheld information about technology Uber is using in its development of self-driving cars. Waymo is in the midst of a contentious lawsuit against Uber, in which it claims Anthony Levandowski, a former Google employee, stole confidential… Read More

Uber admitted in court filings today that it still uses commercially available LiDAR systems in its self-driving vehicles because its in-house technology isn’t ready for the road. Acknowledging that its technology is second-best is a rare move for a competitive startup, but as Uber faces a lawsuit from Waymo, claiming the runner-up title might save its self-driving car program. Read More

Uber admitted today that it had found one of the documents Waymo alleges was stolen by a former employee — who left its self-driving car effort to join Uber’s — on the employee’s personal computer. Read More

Newly-released documents from Google’s October arbitration against Anthony Levandowski, one of the leads of its self-driving car project who abruptly left to launch his own startup Otto in January last year, allege that the talented engineer worked on competing projects for years before leaving Google.
Google also brought arbitration against another Otto co-founder who, like Levandowski… Read More

Uber executive and Otto co-founder Anthony Levandowski is asserting his Fifth Amendment rights in regard to a lawsuit filed by Waymo against Uber, which accuses the company and Levandowski of stealing technology related to autonomous vehicles from the Google self-driving car project prior to his departure. Read More

Google’s self-driving car unit, Waymo, pursued arbitration against one of its star engineers last fall before filing a lawsuit in February against his current employer, Uber, for theft of trade secrets. Waymo claims that its former employee Anthony Levandowski stole 14,000 confidential documents before leaving to start the self-driving truck company Otto, which was acquired by Uber. Read More

More bad news for Uber: one of the ride-hailing giant’s self-driving Volvo SUVs has been involved in a crash in Arizona — apparently leaving the vehicle flipped onto its side, and with damage to at least two other human-driven cars in the vicinity. Read More

Uber-owned Otto’s co-founder Anthony Levandowski must be mightily relieved after an onstage Q&A here at the Mobile World Congress tradeshow passed by with zero awkward moments. For example, there was no mention of the fact his former employer is suing his current employer over allegations of IP theft… Read More